In the pre-dawn hours of a Tuesday morning in Las Vegas, Nevada, the life of 50-year-old Geri Evelyn Hanson came to a tragic and violent end. On April 12, 2016, in the supposed safety of the La Villa Vegas Mobile Home Park, Hanson was desperately trying to escape her ex-husband, 58-year-old Ted Neal Hanson. In her final moments, she was on the phone with the police, pleading for help as she fled from him.
Geri, a Caucasian female, had managed to reach a neighbor's home, banging on their
locked porch door in a frantic attempt to find sanctuary. The neighbor, David Wheatcraft, was awakened by the commotion and was in the process of finding a key when the fatal shots were fired. Ted Hanson shot his ex-wife multiple times with a shotgun, ending her life on her neighbor's doorstep.
When police arrived at the scene around 2:40 a.m., they found Geri Hanson deceased. Her ex-husband had retreated to a nearby mobile home. After a standoff with SWAT officers, Ted Neal Hanson was found dead from a self-inflicted wound. The authorities investigated the case as a murder-suicide.
The tragic event was not an isolated incident in the couple's turbulent history. They had been married for about a year and had a documented history of domestic abuse. Police had been called to their home on four separate occasions for domestic violence incidents in September 2013, shortly before their divorce. Despite the divorce, they reportedly continued an on-and-off relationship. Ted Hanson had a prior history of domestic violence from a previous marriage and was legally prohibited from owning a firearm due to domestic violence convictions in 1989 and 2000.
